The Official 2018 Minor League Statline and Prospect Discussion Thread

[Angelsjunky]

If Garret is healthy he's going to get a ton more than 3/$33M. But yeah, re-sign him if at all possible but I'd be leery to give him five years.

[Make Angels Great Again]

If anyone is on the fence about Richards, you cant totally ignore the fact that he and Trout are literally like best friends. You would be stupid to.

[GrittyVeterans]

Chatwood got 3/38 this offseason. Yes, Garrett is better, but he hasn't pitched as much as Chatwood has. I can't see him getting more than 3 years and 15 million per year

[Inside Pitch]

44 minutes ago, GrittyVeterans said:

Chatwood got 3/38 this offseason. Yes, Garrett is better, but he hasn't pitched as much as Chatwood has. I can't see him getting more than 3 years and 15 million per year

Richards has tossed 702 innings in his career and has yet to have a Tommy John surgery.  Chatwood has thrown 680 innings and has had two Tommy John surgeries.  His career high innings total is 158....   Richards has topped that twice.

Edited May 6, 2018 by Inside Pitch

[GrittyVeterans]

1 minute ago, Inside Pitch said:

Richards has tossed 702 innings in his career and has yet to have a Tommy John surgery.  Chatwood has thrown 680 innings and has had two Tommy John surgeries.  His career high innings total is 158....   Richards has topped that twice.

Well, I stand corrected then. 

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, GrittyVeterans said:

Well, I stand corrected then. 

Meh -- I think most people would have thought the same thing.   I was aware only because I looked up Chatwood at the start of FA.

That said.... Chatwood and Rich Hill are two examples of pitchers with spotty health and track records that got paid.  Richards is a low mileage arm with massive upside.  Add to that the fact that he's the king of spin rates so .. all the smart teams will be interested.

At worst he's a sure thing qualifying offer guy.

Edited May 6, 2018 by Inside Pitch

[Warfarin]

4 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

This is all reasonable but, it will ultimately come down to whether or not the Angels view the potential upside as worth the investment -- his upside is better than any pitcher currently in the system other than Ohtani. 

As far as financial limitations go...   They have what 20 mil space this year still, they'll lose 30 Mil in FA's this coming year, the contracted players only go up 7 mil now that Trout's deal is static the next few years, and the cap goes up to 208 mil in 2019.   They are sitting at 116 mil before the arbitration guys come into play.  People like Hermosillo and Fletcher could easily slide into the lineup/bench replacing people like Young and possibly Kinsler.   They will likely continue to look for value at the C position if Maldonado goes Bengie Molina and declares he wants to get paid...

They won't have the free $$ that the Phillies and others will have but they have more wiggle room than  people think and the farm system is getting closer and closer to filling needs internally on the cheap.

Very reasonable takes as well, I appreciate your thoughtful response.

I agree, we do have some payroll flexibility coming up, just not a ton.  I play around with Cot's Contracts to project the kind of moves we can make.  Ideally I would like to keep Richards, as I would like to keep our core together.  I think we can fill some spots internally on the cheap (backup OF can be Hermosilo or Blash, new 2B can be one of Fernandez/Fletcher, etc), and we can also start filling some rotation spots cheaply too (Canning, Suarez, Castillo probably can contribute to some degree starting in 2019, Barria will be a factor, etc).

Another SP to keep an eye on will be old friend Corbin.  He's having a fantastic year.  If we are considering strong SP options, he could be a guy to keep tabs on.

 

[Warfarin]

So to get this thread back on minor leaguers - both Fletcher and Fernandez are OPS'ing near 1.000, with strong bat control.  Which of these players might we see in the big A first?  It seems Fernandez might be more of a Valbuena replacement, whereas Fletcher could be a possible future 2B for us.  What's neat about Fletcher is having him on the roster would essentially enable us to have 3 guys who could play SS (Simba, Cozart, and Fletcher), so we'd definitely have a lot of defensive versatility.

[totdprods]

I don't see much changing on the infield unless someone gets hurt, Marte gets DFAed, or Kinsler or Valbuena fall into Calhoun territory. There's a little ways to go, and the need of the team at that time would dictate who came up first - defense or offense?

Additionally - Cowart's probably ahead of both still since he's on the 40.

[Second Base]

Something that hasn't been touched on much, JMF is a better defender than advertised.

The scouting report indicated he reallydidnt move around well enough to play 2B anymore, and lacked the athleticism to play 3B.

He's very comfortable at 2B, and at 3B he's been very solid. Very instinctual. As a bonus, he can play a solid 1B as well and repeat suggest he could play the corner OF in a pinch. 

With his bat, and the ability to play all over, he JMF could fill the role that Howie Kendrick has for the past couple seasons.

[Docwaukee]

A lot more position player roster depth this year.  Trading up for Cozart over Escobar, and Upton over Maybin/Revere was obvious.  I think Kinsler will turn things around some, but even if he doesn't, we have options.  

[Docwaukee]

John Lamb with another nice start.  5ip, 1h, 2bb, 6k.  

31k in 27.2ip with 22h and 6bb.  3.25 era.  If we're taking hitters with a grain of salt, then we've got to give pitchers extra credit no?  

[Lou]

3 hours ago, totdprods said:

Marte gets DFAed

Why on earth would we DFA Marté and his .950 OPS?

Edited May 7, 2018 by Lou

[Lou]

What's Kinsler's BABIP?

 

[Docwaukee]

5 minutes ago, Lou said:

What's Kinsler's BABIP?

 

it's .225.   But the concerning thing is that it was .244 last year and with his fly ball rate and dwindling power, not a lot of those fly balls are gonna turn into hrs or even hits.  

[Lou]

1 minute ago, Dochalo said:

it's .225.   But the concerning thing is that it was .244 last year and with his fly ball rate and dwindling power, not a lot of those fly balls are gonna turn into hrs or even hits.  

Thanks.

One thing I noticed is that the longest stretch he's gone without a hit is 2 games (twice). Also, he's only struck out 10 times. 

[Docwaukee]

 

1 minute ago, Lou said:

Thanks.

One thing I noticed is that the longest stretch he's gone without a hit is 2 games (twice). Also, he's only struck out 10 times. 

yep.  he just hits a shit ton of fly balls.  They're actually hit decently hard but he used to have the power to get them out.  Would love to see a stretch of line drives up the middle and some doubles to the gaps.  He'll get better soon.  

[Lou]

Did he have the power or was he just playing in the right ballpark?

[Docwaukee]

2 minutes ago, Lou said:

Did he have the power or was he just playing in the right ballpark?

some of both.  still really good in Detroit so mostly the power over the park.  He's gonna have to change his approach some though.  Defensive metrics liking him less this year too in a small sample.  Passes the eye test to me though.  

[Lou]

Re: defense - Same here.

He and Simmons turning the dp have been great

[Docwaukee]

Taylor Ward hit his 4th hr tonight.  He's becoming pretty damn interesting as a prospect.  

Jesus Castillo gave up 1 hit through 6ip on 73 pitches.  0er, 2bb, 4k.    He's made 6 AA starts.  Blew up in one giving up 7 runs on 8 hits in 3ip.  

Otherwise, he's done the following:

 27.1ip, 11h, 3er, 8bb, 15k.  The strikeout numbers don't stand out, but that's a ton of weak contact or a ton of luck.  

[Docwaukee]

5 minutes ago, Lou said:

Re: defense - Same here.

He and Simmons turning the dp have been great

those three DP on dee gordon this series were back breakers to the M's.  The only thing I didn't like about the M's series is that they didn't camera over on JD so we could see the look on his pretty surfer face.  

[Docwaukee]

Jam Jones with a hr tonight.  His 3rd. 

Luis Rengifo - 2/4.  .853 ops with 17 SB in 29 games.  Came to us via the Rays in the CJ Cron trade but many don't know he was originally in the M's org and traded by Dipoto to the Rays for a backup catcher.  

[Docwaukee]

Marsh 2/4, 2b.  

[Lou]

Did Jones play another sport in HS?